Economic Developer “Dinosaurs” Vs. Fast Internet Information (cont.)

How fast is your economic development?

According to Bob Ady, a pioneer in corporate site selection, “In the past five or six years, the dynamics of the site selection industry have changed more than the previous 40 years combined.What’s driving such change? Simply put, the availability of information through the Internet.” ² (View chart)

In March of 2006 there were 213 million Internet searches per day on the major search engines.³ This is relevant for economic developers because as many as 90 percent of business site selection searches begin on the Internet, although this number may actually be even higher.⁴

The site selection timeline has compressed and the Internet has replaced personal visits as the number one tool for learning about communities.⁵ “The site selection consultant uses the information from a community’s Web site and other online sources. If a community doesn’t have a Web site, the Web site cannot easily be found or it doesn’t have the right type of information, the consultant moves on to other communities that have the information he or she needs,” according to Ady.⁶

“The Internet and GIS, as well as other electronic means of developing a virtual scan of a region and community, will become ever more important in screening long lists of candidate areas. This is driven both by the speed of corporate and investor decision making, but also by the need to find niche opportunities in locations that may not be as well known or documented,” says Gene DePrez, who leads IBM Global Location Strategies.⁷

The best way to communicate in economic development

The Internet provides EDOs with the most dynamic data and communication tool for marketing.⁸ Unlike static media, which become outdated quickly,Web sites can be updated any time.

EDOs don’t sell a consumer product. They market “quality of place” in their community’s geographic surroundings, including the property, demographics, labor force, transportation, environment, services, amenities, incentives, market proximity and more.⁹ All of these can be analyzed as data, and one of the best ways to communicate what economic developers have to offer to businesses is by using a geographic informationsystem (GIS), a combination of digital maps and tabular data that provides powerful data and analysis.

With GIS technology, the data analysis can persuasively quantify the benefits of starting, expanding or relocating a business. This information can be communicated easily to businesses that use the Internet for research and decisionmaking, which today includes nearly every modern business.

Yet the Internet has not changed the economic developers’ value proposition. They still market the advantages of doing business in their geography. Instead, it expands and enhances how they make their value proposition.

There will always be a need for “high-touch” services that require personal interaction between an economic developer and a customer, especially where professional expertise is required. It will also be needed when the service can’t be provided as well, quickly, or easily by an automated system.

The future EDO will incorporate a business model with high-touch economic developer interaction integrated with the best technology and data. This can result in EDOs becoming knowledge organizations where complicated interactions are delivered by economic development knowledge workers, while Internet tools provide information and data delivery programs accessed by internal staff and external customers.

Seven advantages of an improved information and data strategy

Economic developers can create a competitive advantage for their EDOs by improving information and data delivery strategies. By doing this, you can:

1. Out-service the competition through easy-to-use data communication programs.
2. Provide more and/or better data and information to create higher value.
3. Create a “visibility” advantage over economic developers who are less visible because of poor communication strategies.
4. Provide tools, such as GIS, that help businesses understand and visualize a community’s data and show “what’s in it for them.”
5. Use optimal information distribution systems, such as the Internet, to maximize marketing.
6. Automate standard data analysis requests from external customers and internal staff that frees up valuable staff time for expert-level work.
7. Centralize data information, and decentralize data access, on a Web site.

There are many examples of how economic developers use the Internet to communicate data to businesses, persuading them to invest and grow in their communities.

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² “The Internet Has Changed the Dynamics of Site Selection” by Bob Ady. Forbes. 5/06
³ Searchenginewatch.com by Danny Sullivan. 4/20/06.
⁴ “Milwaukee 7 to make splashy Web debut: Interactive maps, other features aim to attract investors to region” by John Schmid. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 11/25/06
⁵ An Angelou Economics survey in May 2006 showed that Web sites were the number one most effective marketing strategy for economic developers, with a survey result more than two times greater than the second place strategy.
⁶ Ady.Forbes,May 2006.
⁷ “Online Mapping Accelerates Site Selection,” Business Xpansion Journal, February 2006.
⁸ Marc Andreessen discusses the flexibility of the Internet as a network media. Newsweek. 3/19/07
⁹ “Quality of Place” is a concept Jon Roberts of TIP Strategies has discussed in numerous settings.